spirits
Listening to the Spirits Helped Make My Restaurant a Success
As a chef, you’re always in demand of help. You need help from your sous, your cooks, and the rest of your staff. Why not take any help from the spirit realm too?
Vietnam's Traditional Rice Liquor Is Finally Going Global
The makers of Sơn Tinh, Vietnam's first internationally awarded rice liquor, want to revive the prestige of traditional rice-based spirits both at home and abroad.
Meet the Creator of the World's First Non-Alcoholic Gin
"On a Monday night, or if you’re driving, or if you’re pregnant, or if you’re having a night off—there are lots of reasons that you might not be drinking."
This Isn't Your Grandfather's Absinthe
What began as a hobby in a Bushwick apartment eventually became Standard Wormwood Distillery, producing oak-aged, rye-based absinthe.
The World's Best Whisky Is Made in a Taiwanese Castle
I’m in a taxi on my way to taste the world’s best whisky, but the view outside of the car window is not of misty Scottish hillsides or Bourbon County. Instead, I’m looking at rice fields and palm trees.
In Prague, Better Alcohol Means Better Absinthe
Prague is lousy with tourists shops offering artificially colored and flavored "Czech-style absinthes,” but a small group of absinthe enthusiasts is leading the charge to bring fine cocktails and spirits to the city.
How to Survive the Biggest Booze-Fest in America
Attending and being able to keep up at Tales of the Cocktail is no easy feat, so I am sharing a few of my personal strategies to prepare, live through, and survive what is perhaps the funnest booze event in the world.
I Tasted Donald Trump's Defunct Golden Vodka
As political opponents seek to undermine Trump’s near mythic success, perhaps no story embodies the Manhattanite’s legacy of wild-eyed, failed business ventures better than his brief foray into the highly competitive premium liquor industry.
This Woman Is Shaking Up the Spirits Industry with Whisky Made from Rice
Kikori may not be the first rice whisky in the American market, but it is the first 100-percent rice-based Japanese whisky in the US. And we all know what happens when Japan tries its hand at whisky: They pretty much perfect the hell out of it.
How This American Man Brought Pisco to South Korea
Ingredients like mezcal and high-quality tonic water are missing from South Korea's bars because they’re technically illegal to import into the country—but one man is trying to change that.
This New Damiana-Distilled Mezcal May Make You Love Harder
Damiana has historically been used as an aphrodisiac in Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. Now, for the first time ever, you can enjoy its alleged qualities in agave form in the US.
Rakija Is the Fire That Fuels the Balkans
“When you taste it, you can tell exactly what family made it,” one Macedonian man told me of rakija, a home-distilled spirit that's a staple in the Balkans.